Bangladesh made it two wins out of two at the Commonwealth Games Qualifier with a 80-run win over Kenya in Kuala Lumpur.
The win was not as comfortable as the margin makes it out to be, the first hour belonging squarely to the East Africans. Kenya won the toss and elected to field first, taking three wickets in the power play, and another three by the end of the eighth over, Queentor Abel (3/14) and Mercyline Ochieng (2/21) the chief destroyers.
Murshida Khatun (26 off 19 balls) was the only batter in Bangladesh’s top six to reach the double figures, and at 50/6, a shock collapse was on the cards.
The experienced Salma Khatun and Ritu Moni then rallied for a controlled, unbroken partnership of 75 runs in eleven overs, and Bangladesh finished on a respectable 125/6 in 20 overs.
Kenya were never in the chase, unable to deal with the probing length that the Bangladeshis consistently bowled, and losing seven wickets before the halfway mark. Left-arm spinner Nahida Aktar mopped up the tail and finished with superlative figures of 5/12, and only Sharon Juma (24 off 20 balls) made a score of note.
In the second game of the day, Scotland won the toss and elected to bat. Sarah Bryce (30 off 17 balls) was the early aggressor, carting Winifred Duraisingam and Ainah Hamiza Hashim to all parts of the ground in the power play.
Once Bryce fell, it was a 63-run partnership between makeshift opener Abbi-Aitken Drummond (43 off 37 balls) and Kathryn Bryce, which laid the foundation for Scotland’s total. Once Drummond fell stumped to Nik Nur Atiela with the score on 104, Scotland were unable to maintain the same momentum, losing three wickets for 44 runs in the last seven overs. Bryce finished with a well deserved unbeaten 62 off 46 balls and the Scots on 148/5.
Left-arm spinner Arianna Nur Nastya – whose action and trajectory is akin to her compatriot Anwar Rahman from the Malaysian men’s team – was the pick of the bowlers with 1/21.
Malaysia’s chase began well. Duraisingam was at her fluent best, driving Slater for two consecutive, identical boundaries past cover in the second over.
Having negotiated the medium pace of Kathryn Bryce, Slater, and Chatterjee with minimal fuss, the Malaysians failed to do the same with sixteen-year old off-spinner Katherine Fraser. Fraser had Wan Julia (11 off 10 balls) plumb in her third ball, and then clean bowled the dangerous Duraisingam (22 off 19 balls) three balls later.
Fraser’s consistent length troubled all of the Malaysian batters, and she finished with 4/19 off four overs.
At the other end, leg-spinner Abtaha Maqsood was less consistent in her length, bowling a number of full tosses, but the dip on her deliveries posed different challenges. Maqsood took the all-important wicket of Mas Elysa (11 off 7 balls) from one of these dipping full tosses, finishing with 2/15 off four overs.
Rear guard action from Jamahidaya Intan (24 off 31 balls) and Nor Wan Zulaika (18 off 25 balls) took Malaysia to a respectable total, but they finished 31 runs short.
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